Press

ALBANY, NY – A national expert known for his success in helping to solve long-standing missing persons’ cases will speak to families and friends of abducted children and other missing persons at the 8th annual Missing Persons’ Day ceremony Sunday, April 5 at the New York State Museum.

The event is held in conjunction with Missing Persons’ Day, which is observed annually on April 6th, Suzanne Lyall’s birthday. The former SUNY Albany student has been missing since March 2, 1998.

Todd Matthews, known for his involvement in the “Tent Girl” case, will be the featured speaker at 2 p.m. in the Huxley Theater. The “Tent Girl” was an unidentified young woman found dead near Georgetown, Kentucky on May 17, 1968. As a result of the ongoing efforts of Matthews, she was positively identified 30 years later, in 1998, as Barbara Ann Hackmann Taylor.

Matthews will talk about his work as media director for the Doe Network, which maintains a searchable database of information about missing persons. He is a consultant on a new TV series being developed by Dick Wolf, producer of the TV show “Law and Order,” and he is on the advisory board of the U.S. Department of Justice’s NamUs.gov (National Missing and Unidentified Persons System) database project. A documentary film about Matthews’ life, entitled “Resurrection,” is currently in production.

Prior to Matthews’ speech, a ceremony will be held in the Museum’s Huxley Theater, beginning at 1 p.m., with Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco as master of ceremonies. It will include a talk by Doug and Mary Lyall, the parents of Suzanne Lyall, who will discuss the Center for Hope, the Ballston Spa-based non-profit organization they founded. This will be followed by remarks by Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings and Albany County District Attorney David Soares.

Following the speeches and presentations, members of families with missing loved ones will place wreaths of yellow roses and hold a candlelight vigil at the Missing Persons’ Remembrance monument, located on the southeast corner of Madison and Swan Streets. Constructed in 2006, the monument features an eternal flame to “light the way home” for the missing.

The New York State Police, the Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS), and other organizations will be present during the event to hand out literature and answer parents’ questions. Jim Viola, a filmmaker and husband of Patricia Viola, who has been missing from Bogota, New Jersey since 2001, will present several short videos about a variety of missing persons’ cases.

The Museum is among several sites in the Capitol Region that hosts a computer kiosk that allows visitors to access information year-round about missing persons.

During the morning of April 5, nearly 200 survivors and friends of missing persons, are expected to attend a private morning session exclusively for the families and missing person organizations, sponsored by the Center for Hope.

“The families of missing persons share a common bond -- pain, anger, sorrow and the agony of losing a loved one,” said Mary Lyall. “Each family has a story to tell about people who are hurting because their missing loved ones have not come home. The annual Missing Persons’ Day event offers these people hope, support and guidance.”

The New York State Museum, established in 1836, is a program of the New York State Education Department. Located at the Empire State Plaza on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free and the Museum is fully accessible. Further information about Museum programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at .

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